My Perfect Camera?

[NickW]

OK.. so just out of interest what would be your perfect camera? What chip size, fps, sensitivity etc? How much would you pay for it? Does it already exist? Being a newbie and seeing results from a modded webcam and other cameras costing a few grand... what is it I get for my extra buck?

[nightfisher]

For me, my perfect camera is my Pentax optio T30, i mainly do lunar A-focal imaging, and this camera really does work well, manual focus, so no annoying auto focus "hunting" plus remote control for zoom and shutter release, plus i can take a colour image, then turn it mono chrome after the capture, good for getting rid of CA and popping a little more detail

[riklaunim]

With dedicated camera you get much higher performance (modded LX webcam -> DSLR -> Dedicated DS Camera or for planetary webcam -> planetary camera). For DS imaging the range is huge and you can match a camera for given scope, imaging targets etc. For planetary everything ends at ICX618 / 445 based cameras.

[Rossco72]

I don't believe there is a "perfect" cam. There are fast frame high sensitivity cams for planetary or lunar where you are trying to get 1000's of frames in under a couple of mins. There are then DSLRs which are convenient and can be used during daytime. Then CCD's where you get colour or mono, small chip with cheaper accessories but smaller fields of views or larger chips covering more of the sky but needing progressively larger filters etc.

Cost is always an issue, I have 4 different cams I use for astro and they al have a place and a job to do.